This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Generic database systems and server systems are well known to the art. Generally, such systems include at least one database server machine hosting database information or data, and usually a database management system.
Such database systems are often dynamic, in that the data held by the database and/or the database management system are regularly updated with new information or data, or with rearrangement, reformatting, removal or the like of existing information. Such systems are also subject to possible errors or inconsistencies in the data held.
Certain basic monitoring systems for database systems are known. For example, a previously considered system may comprise software loaded on the database server, in addition to the database and database management system. Such systems are typically passive, in that they are usually only active when a problem occurs in the database, which triggers the monitoring system. They may also affect the database, as resources for running the monitoring software may be shared on the server with those required for running the database. They may even affect the database by interfering with data of the database itself, in order to carry out a monitoring action, whilst the database is being run, potentially slowing data processing. For this reason, other types of monitoring system may be prevented from assessing or monitoring any data beyond a certain level in the database or the management system, in order to prevent such effects. Previously considered systems are usually also simplistic, in that they only monitor the database for certain types of problems or changes.
The present disclosure aims to address these problems and provide improvements upon the known devices and methods.